Crackling Silence
by Beckon
Summary: There were rumors that the vessel had picked up something from its last mining expedition, some kind of artifact… but a carved up piece of rock couldn't have produced a mess like this, could it?


_Blood loss: 1.2 pints_  
_Heart rate: elevated: 136 bpm_  
_Injuries: mild_  
_Chances of infection: 20%_  
_Adrenaline levels: elevated_

_Proper medical attention is advised._

Proper medical attention?

Maybe if the medical bay wasn't flooded with those… creatures and slaughtered body parts, then maybe he would consider it. Even then though, most of the place was raided of supplies or had them all broken and scattered over the floors. Not really worth bothering with.

If he was careful though, he could keep the injury from tearing open again- then again, he'd have to make sure he didn't run into anymore of those things. Blood was still spilling out of his side from the last attack; damn things had some kind of razor arm that cut through his suit like it was nothing. He wasn't even going to try and make sense of the mess that remained of his neck. Luckily it was just mostly mutilated flesh and those decaying teeth hadn't been able to reach into the muscle or the arteries underneath it. It was just some kind of ambushed attack, he didn't think anything could fit in those ventilation shafts… amateur mistake, he supposed.

Whatever those things were… no place was safe with them.

Bullets didn't affect them unless they were aimed at the limbs, and even then with their increased speed and agility, it was difficult to get a clear aim on them; not to mention, they moved in groups and flooded the narrow corridors, it was near impossible to hit the same one twice.

Fuck, it was like they were everywhere.

Tired fingers moved to power down the holographic screen he had drawn up before he closed the panel and pulled the thin armor plating back down over it. It was a little exaggerated to call it armor though, seeing as those things had an easy enough time denting it in and ripping pieces of it off. There were a few upgrade stations positioned in the central bay but… he wasn't sure if he wanted to risk even a few seconds of not being protected with those things crawling around. Plus, he didn't know if the systems were back online or not, so he didn't want to risk getting stuck in one either.

He leaned back and waited to rest against the stacks of abandoned cargo blocks that had been left in the open space of the control deck. From what he could tell, this seemed to be the only place that was half-decently safe… the sight of discarded bodies said someone else had already ran through and cleared the place out- thankfully.

The crackling of his communicator broke the dead silence around him and garnered a slight jump at the sudden interruption. He supposed the biggest challenge right now would be keeping his head on straight and not losing his cool… next to impossible, right? Fingers tapped lightly on the glowing panel on his right forearm and watched as it unfolded to project another hologram.

It wasn't the least bit surprising to see a face that mimicked the same look of being confused and scared shitless all in one.

"Not gonna lie… surprised to see you're alive; I mean, I'm glad for that, but seriously… how the fuck are we supposed to survive a hellhole like this?"

Truer words had never been spoken.

"Hopefully by keeping our heads straight and not… succumbing to whatever happened here."

"Well I for one would like to know what the hell happened here." the brunette on the other end retorted; dark eyes were constantly moving from one place to the next as he tried to keep his sights on everything around him. His jawline was tense and it was easy to see the sweat that had build up on his skin, the minor tremors that shook his screen as he tried to keep himself under control. "… Or maybe I don't… This shit is way too fucked up to be real."

After witnessing the massacre in the medical bay… he really wanted to believe that something like this wasn't actually happening. Whatever these creatures were, they used to be humans… they used to be the workers on this ship… he could hear them screaming every time he blew off yet another limb; it was like they weren't even dead, but with all the muscular decay and extra limbs bursting out, there was no way someone could survive that kind of mutation.

"Have you heard from the others?"

A light scoff escaped the other man before he shook his head. "Fuck no. I tried to contact Wufei but his com is offline; I think he actually shut it off… last time I talked to him, he sounded really bad off… he kept saying something about seeing people. And Trowa's stuck somewhere in the flight deck, fuck if I knew what he was doing there. Heero's dealing with the engineering deck, he should be able to correct some of the gravitational problems we've got going on and hopefully the oxygen levels too. I was going to check out the residential wing but the people here can't seem to get their navigational cards under control and… I don't have the time to track down dead bodies."

So, for the most part, they had the ship covered. Not that that helped them much with the given problems. They could correct the gravitational mess and the depleting oxygen, but those didn't tell them what was wrong; it just gave them more problems to deal with on top of running for their lives. They were called out to check on the mining vessel just a few days ago… how did things escalate so quickly? The whole ship was like a hellhole massacre, it was like Hell itself opened up and slaughtered everyone.

There were rumors that the vessel had picked up something from its last mining expedition, some kind of artifact… but a carved up piece of rock couldn't have produced a mess like this, could it?

"What's your twenty? Or whatever the hell they say in movies?"

The light hint of humor was nice, but not exactly all that comforting… he'd be breaking his concentration too much to even try and laugh at it. "I hit the medical bay earlier, but… got chased out from there, so I'm using the control deck to get my head back on."

"Well… you're missing a piece, so you might want to look into that."

"Thanks Duo, I didn't notice." he remarked, fingers moving to touch briefly at the shred of flesh along the side of his neck; he actually grabbed a remaining shred of skin and felt it give away and slide off. "We should try to repair communication and call back to headquarters about this mess."

"Oh yeah, I'd love to make that call. I can just hear Noin bitchin' about us getting high again and hallucinating."

"We never got high in the first place…"

"Maybe you didn't, but- forget it, it's not worth explaining the whole mess of it." the other man remarked, pinching the space between his eyes for a moment before something off-screen seemed to startle him. "Jesus fucking Christ, what the hell was that?" he remained frozen in place as he tried to locate where the mysterious noise had come from. "… I think there's something else down here with me… which isn't new."

It was difficult to try and depict where exactly the man was from the screen alone; his arm dropped back to his side to reveal a few blurred images of bloodied posters on the wall, broken storage crates and… what might've been a severed arm.

_"Heart rate elevated: 156 bpm."_

"Does this suit ever shut up? This is the last time I offer to try out a prototype for Ann." the braided-haired man muttered, turning sharply to his left as the sound echoed once more. The screen blurred again before it settled back into sight, revealing a sideways shot of a caved in and broken down door; a few sparks were shooting out from the broken hinges. "… Pretty sure it's getting closer."

"You should try to get out of there-"

A loud cracking noise almost shattered their communication as the door was broken clean from its damaged hinges. The screen showed a display of static as the other man stumbled back away from the sudden rupture of metal and bolts. Whatever had been the cause of it was near impossible to make out through the terrible screen reception… whatever it was though, it wasn't good news for anyone involved.

"You have got to be shitting me!"

A near deafening roar broke their connection soon after.

* * *

Don't look back.

Don't look back.

Holy shit that thing was going to fucking kill him if he looked back!

He didn't get all that good of a look at it, but the few glimpses he did… he quickly realized he didn't want to see it. Some kind of… Goddamnit, he didn't know what it fucking was! Another one of those damn mutated 'things' that were running rampant around this ship- this was the largest one though, at least the largest he had seen. It felt like the floor panels underneath him were shaking; he could hear that thing tearing after him, ripping off wall panels and throwing any object that remained in its path out of its way. The damn thing was grunting and snarling after him, pitching roar after roar as it started to gain on him.

He didn't even know where he fucking was and he was expected to get away from this thing?

"Tram now approaching loading station. Please stay behind the yellow lines."

The announcement was faint and he just barely heard it over the roaring of that beast. But if he was close by a tram station then… he could probably hijack the next ride and put some space between him and this thing; he didn't know where it would be taking him but hell anywhere was safer than with this creature. Throwing himself around the next corner, he ran legs first into a storage crate that had been tossed into the middle of the new corridor; given his speed going into the turn, he practically propelled himself over the flat surface and crashed painfully into the ground on the other side. He didn't land all that hard but his head was spinning as he tried to push himself back up.

Fuck, the creature was a lot faster than he thought though… faster than it should've been.

Its broad body came around the corner just a few seconds later and smashed into the same crate, tossing it and him clean out of its way. Getting knocked into midair in the middle of a narrow corridor wasn't exactly something he wanted to experience, but the agonizing landing made the whole encounter even worse; he swore he heard his own spine crack against the metal plating upon the collision. The crate was the next to follow as it collided dead on with his chest before its continuing momentum flipped it off and slid it down the rest of the corridor.

_"Heavy blunt force trauma. Cracked breastplate. Multiple broken ribs."_

It suddenly felt like he was swimming; his head was clouded by the sudden rush of blood and pain that flooded his receptors. The dull voice of his suit was barely heard over the loud pounding in the back of his head. It was blood slipping through the corners of his lips and spilling down to the contours of his neck; dripping steady trails to the floor below. Buzzing, numb fingertips struggled to get feeling back as they grasped emptily at the tiles underneath him; struggling to get a hold of something in hopes to get himself back up somehow. His sight was pretty much fucked as his head continued to spin and blur what little he could see, leaving him with just a black mess to deal with.

His chest was radiating with pain as short crackles emerged when he tried to move.

The sudden rocket of movement on the floor space beneath him sent a painful racket through his body before another strike of force collided with his chest; finishing off what was left of his breastplate as he was forced into the panel below.

Whatever this thing was, whatever kind of… armored, spiked piece of shit of a creature this was… it was right on top of him now. Some kind of mutated, fleshy arm was situated on his chest, taking up almost all of the space of his midsection as well as it stood over him; a dripping mess of salvia and blood streamed down from what looked to be a stretched section of mandibles. Even through his shitty sight, he swore it looked like there was some kind of human face staring down at him… God he hoped this wasn't just another one of those mutations, just like the others. This couldn't just be one person though, this had to be multiple bodies just fused into one.

Actually that was a more disturbing thought.

"You are one ugly motherfucker." he managed to spit out; gritting his teeth through the agony radiating from his chest.

A long rush of hot air escaped from the creature's hanging mouth, almost burning the skin of his face. What might've remained of lips peeled back into a heavy snarl, revealing a chaotic mess of teeth and bleeding gums. He wasn't even sure if he was looking into its eyes or not, they looked to just be a bubbling mess of black ooze that remained congealed in empty sockets.

The sudden burst of gunfire from somewhere behind him rained in against the creature, striking the wide areas of its shoulders and head. The dull echo of bullets striking the armored pieces had a twisted ending though and he felt several of the bullets simply bounce off the plating and strike the areas around his head.; one of them managed to tear into the lining of his arm, but failed to actually strike skin.

"Holy Christ, you're hitting me!" he managed to call out over the blaring of the gun and the shrilling screech of the creature.

Throwing its head back, the beast screamed before it took after whoever was responsible for the bullets; its arm pressing further into his chest as it pushed off and pursued the new threat.

_"Heart rate elevated: 189 bpm. Muscular bleeding. Lung tissue swelling."_

"Fuck you suit, I hate you."

He slid his arm back to brace himself against the floor, just enough to twist his body to try and clear his throat of the blood that was still coming up. Just coughing to try and clear his lungs was almost too painful, knocking the few breaths of air he still had in his lungs. Well… he just basically fucked himself over with this kind of injury. He could barely fucking move, let alone get to his feet and run; he was just dead fucking meat now.

_"Administering adrenaline."_

That would help take care of the pain for a little while but it'd probably die out when he needed it most. He might as well take advantage of it though as he did his best to push himself into a more suitable position; it felt like his bones were breaking with every movement, his entire body trying to move and break down the adrenaline all at the same time. Or maybe it was all just breaking down instead.

Didn't it say something about lung tissue swelling? Fuck it, he wasn't a doctor, he didn't know what that meant.

"Godfuckingdamnit." he muttered under his breath as he managed to grab a holding on the wall closest to him and pull himself somewhat to his feet. "I'm putting in request for a department change after this."

He should probably be more focused on where that creature went though and who interrupted this would be death scene. If he had to put a bet on it… he'd probably just lose the money since he couldn't really remember any names right now.

Another piercing roar could be heard somewhere in the close distance, this one was different though; it was almost more like a droning, gurgle kind of noise. Was that thing already dying? Who the fuck managed to pull that off? Leaning most of his weight against the wall, he forced himself to move as best he could- only managing a slight shuffle before that damn adrenaline managed to kick in.

A different set of footsteps came around the far corner, revealing a more humanoid figure that lacked the extra limbs and crazed stance. If he was lucky it was someone he could stand… actually he should really just be glad for whoever decided to show the fuck up.

"Duo, are you alright?"

"If this situation was less disturbing and/or dire, I would've said 'Fuck you Trowa' but I don't think that option's available to me right now." he remarked, pushing himself away from the wall to test and see if his body could sustain his weight. Unfortunately it didn't. "What the hell was that thing?"

"I'm not entirely sure; Heero referred to it as some kind of Brute but… I don't think we have time to make identifications right now." the other man commented, cutting down the amount of space between them. "You didn't answer my question though."

"My rig's in the deep red shit right now and this fucking suit won't stop talking."

"… So you're okay then."

* * *

Beads of sweat proved to be irritating as he kept his gun positioned straight in front of him; his grip was near iron-like despite the minor tremor that ran down to his fingertips. Heavy gasps for air wrecked havoc in the depth of his chest and felt like they tore the lining of his lungs as he tried to regain a steadier rhythm. The bright orange and red lights that had been flashing about beforehand flickered for a few more moments before they finally cut off.

"Quarantine solved." some kind of mechanical voice called overhead as the white emergency lights returned.

It sure as hell better be solved.

There were literally piles of bodies surrounding him; severed and skewed limbs had been blasted to the other end of the room or blown into pieces to cover the metal tables that had been mere obstacles to him moments before. These creatures had survived clip after clip, bullet after bullet until their chests had been reduced to a mush-like state of tattered tissue and flesh. The fucking things just kept coming again and again, breaking out through the vents to flood the already small room. He was certain that a quarantine act before was helpful and actually proved to be worthwhile… but not so much when it just proceeded to trap you into a single room with no escape and over a dozen of those fuckers. He wasn't fucking prepared for that kind of challenge; his fucking suit was ripped down his arms and partly across his back when one of those special fuckers blew up. It had some kind of sickly, yellow sac on its arm that he thought would be a great idea to fucking target, not even thinking that it might possibly be filled with explosive liquid… because how the fuck was that possible?

He was pretty certain he was missing a few fingers off his left hand, there was just blood and hanging tissue pushing out through the ripped gloves; he could see down to the bone through the rush of crimson liquid.

Fuck this whole goddamn ship.

Pushing himself out of the corner he had been forced into, he barely made it halfway across the bloodied room before the lights went down once more; the faint whirring of engines in the distance cut down for a short while before they stirred back up.

"Gravitational system: reset. Oxygen supply: reset. Communicative systems: online."

Yet another message from the ship itself.

Hell, he wasn't even aware there was something wrong with the gravitational system… or the oxygen for that matter. Now, he had shut off his own com, but if the ship went through a full recall, that probably meant it had reset his own settings just by default. They had linked into the ship's communication system in order to boost their own signals and make staying in contact easier.

The flashing light that ran down his bloodied forearm signaled that someone was trying to get in contact with him. Perfect.

"Hey, I know your stupid ass is there."

Shaking his head, he wondered how far he could go without answering the crackling of his com. Knowing the man who was trying to get in contact with him though… it wouldn't last all that long. He'd eventually give up trying or try to track him down. Right now, he just didn't want to deal with anyone else right now, with all this shit going on he couldn't concentrate on someone else being here.

"I know you're not dead either."

Pushing his way out of the once sealed room, he made his way out into the mess of corridors outside. The lack of a map didn't give him much to go off of though; he couldn't really remember how he got down here in the first place. One of those fucking creatures snapped the supporting cables to the elevator he had been in and it dropped him down into this deck instead.

He paused slightly in mid-step, feeling another set of eyes burning into his back somehow. There wasn't anyone or anything else around him… he killed most of the creatures down here already and the lack of rumbling from the vents told him that reinforcements weren't coming either. So how else could that kind of sensation be replicated?

"Just answer your fucking com already."

Goddamnit.

He moved to tap the panel once and glanced down at the holographic screen that showed up in response. The stern-looking man on the other end seemed way beyond pissed off- more so because of him deliberately ignoring him but it wasn't like he gave a shit. "You know, it's kind of hard to get around when certain people won't shut the fuck up." he muttered in response, choosing to continue on his way while the feeling dissipated.

"Is that why you shut your com off in the first place?"

"No, Yuy, I did that because your stupid ass gave my position away when I was trying to sneak past some of those things." he snapped as he moved to push through another door; glancing around to see if there was anything else occupying the room on the other side. From what he could tell, it just looked to be some kind of computer room, there were consoles all over the place. "What the hell do you want from me?"

"Because I'm not going to let people get killed because of your stupid tactics of... chasing dead people. The moment one of us goes off the map, everyone else is going to get distracted and go looking for your dead body; it's going to lead to some kind of trap and we're all going to get fucked."

He tried to shake the man off once more and simply moved to the red screen the computers were flashing, scanning over the words detailing of errors and some kind of door lock. There was a given option to reset the system to default, the flashing white square around it made it seem even more tempting. He didn't know what was on the other side of that door though… it might be something he didn't want to deal with; or it might be something that could assist him instead. These were the choices that forced him to walk on narrow lines.

Reaching forward, he tapped twice on the screen and watched as the consoles flickered and powered down for a moment. The sound of a mechanical lock releasing clattered in the distance before the screens powered up once again. A script was running through as the keyboards seemed to be entering in key codes by themselves; specific keys were lighting up and dying down to form a complex mix of numbers and letters. He wasn't all focused on the combination though; his eyes more drawn to how the metal plating in front of him began to pull away to reveal the small room to be an observation deck instead. What had once been a wall turned into a protective shield instead… revealing a large unloading dock below.

A massive black carving stood in the middle of the dock, its curved form reaching up to the ceiling of the ship; bright red markings ran down the sides and curled all the way to the pointed tips of it.

The Devil's Tail.

Was this the artifact those reports were talking about? This… carved piece of rock was apparently the source this outbreak. Impossible. This was more along the lines of some kind of biological, almost parasitic outbreak, not a mental break down those papers described.

The sight of it was enough to drive some people insane though…

"Holy fuck…"

"What did you find?"

**A/N: Just a few drabbles that crossed my mind- the news of Dead Space 3 certainly jogged my creativity, although I've wanted to do something like this for awhile now. It didn't turn out completely how I wanted it to, but it's close enough. I'll probably do more in the future. **


End file.
